Dive Brief:
- Brookshire Grocery Co. has agreed to sell 120 pharmacies to Walgreens, the Texas-based grocery retailer announced Tuesday. The companies did not disclose financial terms of the transaction.
- Walgreen plans to convert most of the pharmacies included in the deal into Walgreens locations that will operate inside Brookshire stores.
- With this arrangement, Brookshire joins other grocers that have exited the pharmacy business in recent years.
Dive Insight:
Brookshire is transferring its pharmacies in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas to Walgreens, but plans to retain the pharmacies it currently operates in Reasor’s stores in Oklahoma, according to the announcement.
Brookshire, which purchased the 17-store Reasor’s chain in November 2021, said it intends to continue operating the pharmacies inside Reasor’s stores under the Brookshire brand. The company added that it plans to also devote resources to its grocery business, which encompasses more than 205 stores in the four states where it does business.
In addition to Brooksire’s and Reasor’s, the grocer’s banners include Super 1 Foods, Spring Market and Fresh by Brookshire's.
“Together with its dedicated employee-partners, BGC remains focused on its vision of being the premier regional grocery retailer in the markets it serves,” the company said in a statement, using its initials.
Brookshire is following in the footsteps of other retailers that have elected to sell their in-store pharmacies. Target sold its fleet of 1,672 pharmacies in 47 states to CVS in 2015, while Schnuck Markets agreed in 2020 to transfer ownership of 99 pharmacies to CVS.
In 2019, Raley’s shuttered 27 of its nearly 100 pharmacies and Lunds & Byerlys closed all of the 14 pharmacies it had been operating.
“The pharmacy industry has become increasingly complex over the past few years, and it was important to us to find a business leader that has the capabilities to focus on providing exceptional pharmacy services and value to our customers,” Brookshire’s Chairman and CEO, Brad Brookshire, said in a statement.
Brookshire said that “a select few” of its pharmacy locations will close in connection with its deal with Walgreens. Patient files from those locations will move to either anther in-store pharmacy at a Brookshire’s store or a nearby Walgreens store, the company added.
Walgreens plans to offer jobs to Brookshire’s existing pharmacy employees “as part of our commitment to ensuring a seamless transition,” Brad Ulrich, vice president of pharmacy and retail operations for the drug retailers, said in a statement.
The companies noted in the press release that they “are committed to finding employment opportunities for substantially all eligible pharmacy employee-partners” in other Brookshire or Walgreens locations.
Walgreens’ decision to acquire the pharmacies comes just weeks after the drugstore chain disclosed plans to shutter 150 locations as part of a cost-cutting campaign.
